A Happy Death by Allison Bechdel, left me torn. How could death be so ridiculously dry? The comic strip is devoid of emotion, somewhat relating to the inability of humans to face death, but also casting an eerie background to her efforts. I must admit that reading this left me with goosebumps on my arms and confusing still ringing in my ears.
I could not believe how much each of the feminine or non feminine characters all looked male. It confused me at first, but then I wondered if the graying of the gender roles could be part of Bechdel's overall point. Once I got to the end, I read through it again thinking I had missed an underlying point about gender roles amidst the subject of death. I was disturbed to discover the likeness of gender roles being switched. Generally I thought it should be father, son- Mother, duaghter type of relations, call me hypocritical. I started to see that there was much more behind the comic strip than just the uncomfortable subject.
Using the subject of death seemed at first, an akward if not uncomfortable subject to read about. Perhaps that was the point. It made me think of Stiff by Mary Roach in the manner the way th dry humor took away from the eeriness of the subject. It made me think that, hey- we are all eventually going to die right? Why am I afraid of something that is inevitably going to hapen. My mind could have strayed then to all of the sci-fi answers of far fetched capabilities but I found that the truth for me was that I was scared to leave things unfinsihed, to leave the people that make me happy, and to not have the things that make my every day life-my life.
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